Two jailed Iranian journalists were released today after over a month in prison. Farzaneh Roustayi, editor of international service of Shargh newspaper was released on a $10,000 bail, and Reyhaneh Tabatabayi, Shargh newspaper reporter, was released after 36 days in custody.
In November, the owner and three editors of Shargh were suddenly arrested. Later a reporter and a cartoonist involved with this paper were also arrested.
To date, all these detainees were released except for Keyvan Mehregan, the editor of the political sections of the paper.
Tehran prosecutor announced in December that the arrests connected with Shargh newspaper were due to “security charges.”
Shargh is a reformist newspaper which has been shut down three times in the past seven years.
It was shut down in 2007 for “publishing material considered against public decency”, in 2006, for depicting a donkey with a halo around its head in a cartoon, and in 2003, for publishing an article about Sattar Khan, an Iranian historical figure which the supervisory board felt was insulted in the material.
The restrictions against newspapers and journalists have intensified after the election protests of 2009 and several Iranian journalists are currently in prison while many more have fled the country.
